Video: Adding a custom vignette

I'm very happy with how my images are turning out. It took a variety of adjustments to start off with the effect and really the most important thing was applying HDR toning. That adjustment really put the finishing touches on the basic effect that I was after and at this point, I feel that I have a. Pretty much finished image, but I would like to add one additional detail. I want to add a little bit more drama to the image, and also help to sort of frame up the photo, by adding a vignette effect. But not just a typical vignette, where mostly the corners get darkened, and the edges of the image don't get darkened all that much.

In this course Tim Grey takes a unique approach to teaching you to optimize your images in Photoshop. Rather than focusing on a particular "category" of adjustments, or being organized strictly by topic, this course will concentrate on specific images. Work along with Tim as he examines each image, sets goals for the final result, and optimizes the image based on those goals. Along the way you'll gain insights into tonal and color adjustments, image cleanup techniques, creative effects, and much more.

Adding a custom vignette

I'm very happy with how my images are turning out.It took a variety of adjustments to start off with the effect and really the mostimportant thing was applying HDR toning. That adjustment really put the finishingtouches on the basic effect that I was after and at this point, I feel that Ihave a. Pretty much finished image, but I wouldlike to add one additional detail. I want to add a little bit more drama tothe image, and also help to sort of frame up the photo, by adding a vignette effect.But not just a typical vignette, where mostly the corners get darkened, and theedges of the image don't get darkened all that much.

Instead I'm going to create, essentially, a rectangular vignette, so that I'm addingsomething of a dark frame around the photo.I'll blend that in, of course, but that's the basic idea that I'm after.So I'm going to start off. By creating a selection that will definethe area of the image that I want to darken.I'll go to the toolbox and choose the Rectangular Marquee tool, and then I'llcreate a selection that's just inside the edge of the image essentially defining theboundary between the area that I want to darken and the rest of the photo.Right about there looks to be pretty good. But I'd actually selected the central areaof the image, not the edges, and so I need to invert this selection.

To do that I can go to the select menu and then choose inverse, you can also pressCtrl-Shift-I on Windows or Command-Shift-I on Macintosh to apply that inverse commandfor the selection. Once I choose that command you'll see thatI now have that border area selected in the image.At this point I can apply my adjustment in order to darken up that edge.I'll go ahead and just use a levels adjustment.I'll go to the bottom of the Layers panel, and click on the add Adjustment layerbutton, the half black, half white circle icon, and I'll choose levels.

And because I have a selection active while I'm adding this adjustment layer,the adjustment layer will automatically be masked so that it only effects thisspecific area. You can see that I have a new Layers maskattached to my Levels adjustment.There's a white border around the edge of the image.And with a Layer mask, white means reveal. In other words, reveal the Levelsadjustment in that area. The central portion of the image is black.And that means block the adjustment. So as I apply a Levels adjustment you'llsee I'm only affecting that. The outer edge of the image.

I'm going to start off with a fairly dramatic darkening effect, I'll be able totone this down a little bit as needed in just a moment, and then I'm going toswitch to the Masks section of the Properties panel so that I can apply some feathering.You can see that because my selection was not feathered I have a very crisptransition between the area that I'm darkening.And the rest of the image. So, I'll increase the value for feather inorder to blend that area in to the rest of the image and I need to use a relativelyhigh value here so that I get a good degree of blending otherwise there will bean obvious indication of that vignetting effect.

At anytime I can switch back to the actual adjustments and fine tune that vignettebut I do want to keep it relatively strong.Because of the feathering it sort of blends in and it might seem like I've lostthe feathering effect but I'll go ahead and turn off the visibility for thatlayers adjustment level and then turn it back on.And you can see it's a rather dramatic effect.I think at this point it's still a little bit too dark so I'll tone that down just a little.And I think that one of the key lessons is that with many adjustments It might seemokay at first, but then when you toggle it off and on, you'll realize that theadjustment was a little bit too aggressive.

I do want to feather the layer mask a little bit more as well.I think, right about there will work pretty well.I'll toggle the visibility for that levels adjustment layer off and then on again.And you can see, we just have this sort of.Framing effect around the edge of the image and I think that really helps add tothe drama and also keeps your view inside the image so you don't drift off outsideof the photo. With that I think I have my final result.This was an image that quite frankly I didn't think much of when I saw it on theback of my camera. And I still didn't think all that much ofit when I downloaded it to my computer and reviewed it.

But the more I thought about the mood I was trying to create in terms of thephotographs I was capturing in Bratislava, the more I realized that this image couldwork very well. And after exploring it just a little bit,I've come away with a result that I'm very happy with.

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